I haven’t blogged for quite awhile. Been too busy. whew! We’ve been rehearsing for my next two PRIME TIME DVDs. This time ( and like in the young days) I have others in the class with me. I like it cause they’re real people. They go from a retired probation officer, a matchmaker, a writer of children’s books, a lawyer, etc. It is hard work, working out all the choreography, memorizing, costume fittings…you’ll love my new outfits. One- of- a- kind, cat-suit-like outfits, all one piece. ( gotta really remember to suck it in!).

Then I’ve been developing the “Special Bonus” segments which, this time, is meditation on one and relaxation on the other. I’m excited. We have live bongos on the set and the music by Ralph Carter, is totally amazing.

Except for Saturday night, just about all I’ve been doing is rehearsing, writing script and sleeping. Well, Sunday night, Richard and I watched the first part of ” The Kennedys” which I thought was pretty good. Kate does Jackie really well, I think. It’s interesting. I knew the Kennedys and never knew that Jackie wanted a divorce before Jack ran for president. Didn’t realize the extent to which father Joe ran the show. Talk about patriarchy! In that family it was quintessential!

Saturday night I went with my son and daughter-law to the engagement party for Megan Ferguson, the daughter of my friends Sharon and Howell Ferguson. You may have seen them in some blogs I did in June from Paris. Megan is an actress (just finished a pilot for TNT called ” Hound Dog”.) Her fiance, Nico Evers-Swindell, is from New Zealand and is also an actor. He just finished playing Prince William for the Lifetime miniseries about Prince William and Kate. It was a fun party. Nice people, good friends, good punch: crushed watermelon and tequila, sweetened with blue agave. Yum!

Megan and Nico getting it on

Jill Clayburgh’s daughter Lily Rabe who just finished playing in ‘Merchant of Venice’ with Al Pacino on Broadway, with Megan and me

Troy, Simone and I hung together for awhile after. Interesting things happened but…that’s for another time. I gotta get ready for bed. Tomorrow we begin the DVD shoot and we have only 3 days to do 2 whole DVDs.

3 Comments

Nice to hear your having a full life, and enjoying every moment of it, from the above blog post.
Writing a script did some to stand out, I’m surprised that more experienced actor do more script writing. You like writing and you have completed more than just a few books in your lifetime.
On that subject, I have sent to you a script, via CAA ,now agent Ben Dey, and would be happy to have your good or bad views on that subject. You may be in fact the only person to have read it, being that I did write the story for with you in mind, and Marlee Marlin ,Kirk Douglas as well.
I still feel the market for the subject matter is right and the importance of the social issues are to be taken in to concern.
I’m still alive and moving and as so, not brain dead or anything and willing to work with people on a normal level for the better good.

I think most writers – scholarly and popular – that Jacqueline Kennedy never requested that Ambassador Kennedy pay her $1M or any other sum in order for her to remain married to her husband, nor was any were any monies offered to her by the Ambassador for that purpose.

Its interesting to note that, although I was too young at the time to have any firsthand recollection (I was born in 1949) of it, the story was widely reported in the press in ’58 & ’59, especially in the Hearst papers if any one remembers what they were. Just part of the flotsam and jetsam of useless information I’ve acquired over 61 years here and with which I clutter my brain.

Also note with sadness the passing of Lennie Weinglass with whom I was acquainted back in Newark, NJ. The bulk of his practice back in those days (late ’60s, early ’70s) was worker’s compensation, landlord/tenant disputes, etc. Not high profile cases, nor political radicals. But people. First rate criminal defense counsel (he wasn’t so bad on the civil side either.) Could have made big bucks defending white collar criminals, Mafiosi, and other as some of his colleagues chose to do. Always remained true to his beliefs. Always a nice guy.

Also to Mr. Dougherty: Hope you took the basic step of at least registering your script with the WGA. It behooves anyone actively involved in the entertainment business or interested in it to take “The Business of Entertainment” offered every semester at UCLA Extension, or at the very minimum to read my business partner, Sky Moore’s, excellent book, “The Biz.” Sky’s widely regarded as the smartest guy in the business. Certainly the most interesting: Doesn’t even go to movies, yet puts most of the big financing deals together.

My apologies. What I meant to write was that most writers – scholarly & popular – are in agreement about the million $ or lack thereof.

As a cautionary tale for those already in The Business or those with aspirations in that direction: While I don’t know James Cameron, I do know the fund (and its head) which financed AVATAR. They’ve yet to see dime one as a return on their investment, i.e. its yet to “come into the money” which is to say the point at which contingent participation rights – the “back end” – kick in. This fund also spent about $70M on an audit – a good number – since it also failed to pick up about 70% of the “Hollywood accounting” engaged in by the studio which distributed it. This is not to say that Cameron didn’t make anything; he received a fee for producing/directing. By way of example, Ron Howard’s fee for directing is probably under $500K on which he owes something to his “partner” : Uncle Whiskers.